


Year One

by dasfreefree



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Banter, F/M, Female!Reader - Freeform, First Meetings, Flashbacks, Flirting, Gift Fic, Love Confessions, Nekoma Third-Years as First-Years, Nekoma!Manager reader, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24776038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dasfreefree/pseuds/dasfreefree
Summary: It was a good decision becoming the manager of the Nekoma Men's Volleyball Club. Without it, you probably wouldn't have met your boyfriend.
Relationships: Kuroo Tetsurou/Reader
Comments: 2
Kudos: 94





	Year One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tol_noodle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tol_noodle/gifts).



> This was a birthday fic I wrote for my girl May back in 2017 that I originally posted to [our request blog](https://imagine-that-haikyuu.tumblr.com/post/162994512688/year-one-happy-birthday-may). It's the prequel to two other Kuroo/Nekoma Manager!Reader scenarios I wrote. You can read the [original scenario here](http://imagine-that-haikyuu.tumblr.com/post/155906552018/scenario-where-kuroo-and-his-gf-whos-nekomas) and its [NSFW sequel here](http://imagine-that-haikyuu.tumblr.com/post/160350777868/could-you-do-a-nsfw-scenario-where-kuroo-and-his).

You’re tickled curious when one of the nice third-years asks you to consider becoming a manager for the boys’ volleyball club. She’s a pleasant person and you don’t have a clue yet what kind of club you hope to join now that you’re a first-year in high school. You agree to come by after class to check it out.

Outside of the sports club rooms, after you’ve changed into your P.E. attire, she begins to explain some of the manager’s duties to you.

“So they usually warm-up for a bit and then–”

“Chocolate!”

“Vanilla!”

“Who the hell prefers vanilla over _chocolate_?”

You blink at the sudden outburst from above you, only to find a three students descending down the club room building stairs. Two of them only look vaguely familiar, but you immediately recognize Kai Nobuyuki from your class. He’s smiling, but you can tell it’s strained, as if he’s trying to be the sane man of the trio. Your senior, however, is less taken by surprise than you are and groans in frustration.

“Are you two still fighting over nothing?” she asks. Her question promptly halts the other two boys’ bickering and you have to fight back a giggle. “Seriously, you’re teammates now. I thought you moved past this last week. Besides, how do you think this looks to other people? (L/N) is going to observe today to see if being a manager is a good fit for her.” She gestures to you and you give a slight bow. “You better shape up to fix your first impression or you might be manager-less after the third-years are gone.”

The two of you head into the gym, leaving them to get their acts together. After watching you briefly, Yaku turns to Kuroo

“You’re the one who started it this time,” he scoffs.

Kuroo doesn’t answer him. His eyes are still fixed on your retreating form and remain so until you’ve disappeared inside. Only then does he return his attention towards his fellow first-years.

“Did you say something?”

Kai puts a hand on Yaku’s shoulder, knowing full well that they would start up again if his teammate went unrestrained (if the clenched jaw and fist after Kuroo’s question were any indication of that). Kuroo instead puts on a clearly feigned grin.

“Hey, we should do as our senpai said. Can’t be scaring away potential managers, right? If we want to be a powerhouse team, we need to focus on playing and less on managerial duties.”

Yaku rolls his eyes at this, but it’s clear he doesn’t need to be held back anymore. Kai lets go of him with a relieved sigh and Yaku speaks up again, “You have an ulterior motive.”

“What ever could you be talking about?”

Before Yaku can retort, the captain’s voice calls out to them: “Hey! Quit slacking! You’re going to be late!” The three first-years stand at a attention before jogging to the rest of the way to the gym.

The impression they leave on you doesn’t have much of an negative impact on your decision to officially join as a manager. It’s quite the opposite, actually: you find them entertaining and enjoy their banter. You keep your giggles to a minimum around them, however, knowing that your senior won’t stand for you encouraging that kind of behavior. (“It’ll be bothersome for me now and then for you once I’ve graduated. You’ll have to whip them into shape when they’ve already formed a bad habit.” Even though you’re sure that with a dependable captain this year and the next, that would fall on them more rather than you.) But sometimes, they say things that make it impossible for you to not crack up at.

Either way, you’re enjoying your time on the team. As you learn the ropes on how to be a great manager, you quickly get to know all the players, especially your fellow first-years. You’re already in the same class as Kai so, with his usually agreeable disposition, getting along with him was a given from the start. Yaku’s command and knowledge of the game are bar none, and you turn to him often to explain things to you (and perhaps pick up on his sharp tongue and low tolerance for nonsense to help you out later).

Thanks to having the same general route to and from school, you become closest to Kuroo. Maybe you’re a little happy about this because you’ve always had a thing for dark-haired, taller guys. And there’s something very charming about his sly demeanor coming down the second he makes a bad joke or tries to insult someone with science class vocabulary.

“So what’s my number?” he asks you on the train ride home one night after practice. He’s taken to phrasing it like this whenever he wants to check his block statistics.You dig through your bag to find your stats-filled notebook.

“Well, you definitely blocked more consistently this week,” you explain, comparing the numbers you wrote down. “You made about five-percent more kills than last week and less of your blocks ended up out-of-bounds too. Good work.”

Kuroo genuinely smiles at this and scoots closer to see for himself. It would normally warm your heart to see him proud of him improvement, but the sudden change in proximity distracts you from that. In your somewhat nervous state, you hold the notebook up closer to him to try and force some distance between the two of you.

“Great!” he says. Either he’s totally unaware of how flustered you are, or he’s doing a spectacular job at being coy. Knowing him, it’s probably the latter. “And what’s your number?”

If you weren’t already so attuned to Kuroo, this would have thrown you off, seeing as you don’t have any gameplay statistics for yourself. But it’s been a few weeks and you two have gotten close; you’re used to this already.

He also hasn’t necessarily been secretive about his crush on you either. Mainly, in that he takes every opportunity to mention how cute you are. “Our cute manager (L/N)-chan” this and that at least once per practice. At first, you thought it might have just been in his nature to tease you (or any girl for that matter) but you found out sometime later that he likes girls with long hair. You’re not sure how long exactly he prefers, but yours is well past your shoulders.

The night after you found this out you couldn’t stop flipping between playing with your hair while looking in the mirror and trying to put it out of your mind completely. You would normally have chalked it up to luck–a lot of girls at school have long hair–but your commute home together gave him a better chance to flirt with you.

You decide to call him out on his bad pick-up line in hopes that it’ll lead to playful banter.

“Kuroo, you already have my number. The whole team had to exchange numbers with each other in case of emergency,” you explain. You’re trying to hold back your grin, but just looking at him makes you laugh.

His signature smirk returns.

“Oh, so can I send you a message then?”

“Well, it’s not like I can stop you.”

He reaches into his pocket to pull out his phone. You look elsewhere on the train, trying to not make it painfully obvious that whatever message he’s about to send you is making you a good kind of anxious. When your phone buzzes in your bag, it takes every ounce of strength to not immediately grab it to check. You wait a few moments, place the notebook back in your bag, and pretend that it’s just a coincidence.

_Kuroo Tetsurou:  
Hey~_

That’s all it says. You narrow your eyes at your screen and groan. Honestly, you should have known better, but his low chuckle only makes you feel even more foolish.

“I’m blocking your number,” you announce flatly. Your phone buzzes in your hand again.

_Kuroo Tetsurou:  
Whoops! I hit send before I could write out the rest of my message._

Naturally. You roll your eyes.

_I bet you rolled your eyes at that. Ye of little faith, (L/N)-chan! All I want to do is ask you out on a date Saturday._

Now you blush and really have to look away to compose yourself. You glance at Kuroo out of the corner of your eye. He’s got on his usual face, pretending as if he’s not flustered, but you can see a dusting of pink on his cheeks. This somehow manages to calm you down.

“Um, does 6 PM work?” you ask aloud. You voice cracks under your nerves, and Kuroo immediately turns to you bright-faced and wide-eyed.

“Wait, really?”

You blink and turn to him too, face falling. “Did…did you think I was going to say ‘no’?”

“It was kind of a shot in the dark, but it worked out in the end! I got to see your cute reactions and now I’m going on a date with you too.” He leans back in his seat and hums. “A date with our cute manager (L/N)-chan.”

The red instantly returns to your face, but your smile is wide. You never regretted your decision to become their manager, but now you’re thankful to your past self for her smart move.


End file.
